McLaren’s withdrawal of both cars from the start of the Chinese Grand Prix was down to two separate electrical problems with their Mercedes engines.

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were due to start the Shanghai race fifth and sixth on the grid.

McLaren discovered an electrical issue with Piastri’s engine on the grid and had to move it to the garage before the start of the race after failing to resolve it.

Norris did not even make it to the grid at all, after a problem was identified during what McLaren called “routine race preparation”.  

It is the first time Norris has missed a grand prix start in his F1 career while Piastri is yet to complete a single racing lap in 2026 after crashing out during a reconnaissance lap before the start in Australia last week.

McLaren described the pair of unconnected problems as an “extremely unfortunate coincidence” as it withdrew both its cars prior to the start for the first time in more than 20 years.

Team principal Andrea Stella said: “We are here to go racing, and today we were not in condition to do so because of separate electrical problems on both power units, which is extremely frustrating and disappointing for the team, the drivers, our technical and commercial partners, and of course our fans.

“Nothing had changed between Saturday’s qualifying and the fire-up in the garage pre-race, but as we prepared Lando’s car to leave the garage an electrical problem was discovered on the power unit.

“We tried to fix it alongside our partners at Mercedes HPP, but there was no way to do so which resulted in the first prevention of a grand prix start in his career.

“Then on the grid we found another electrical issue on Oscar’s power unit which couldn’t be resolved, resulting in the car being required to return to the garage for further investigation.

“They look to be separate electrical faults on the power unit occurring at the same time, an extremely unfortunate coincidence which meant there was simply no way to start the race with either car this afternoon.

“We’ll investigate together alongside our partners at HPP to understand what happened.”